Time is money as Paul Newman's watch fetches $17.8-million

Actor Paul Newman’s legendary Rolex “Paul Newman” Daytona, a constant beloved companion of his for years, was sold on auction for $17.8-million by Phillips Auction on 26 October, 2017.
Photo: HANDOUT / PHILLIPS / AFP

NEW YORK, United States - A constant beloved companion of Paul Newman for years, the late Hollywood star's Rolex has sold for $17.8 million, setting a world auction record for a wristwatch, Phillips said Friday.

Given to him by his wife Joanne Woodward and lovingly inscribed while the couple filmed and co-starred in the 1969 movie "Winning," Newman was photographed wearing the iconic stainless steel watch on countless occasions.

Auction house Phillips said it was snapped up late Thursday in New York by an anonymous telephone buyer for $17.8-million (R252-million)after 12 minutes of frenzied bidding in a sale that attracted collectors from more than 40 countries.

But if it's the most expensive wristwatch sold at auction, a handcrafted Patek Philippe pocket watch made for New York banker Henry Graves remains the most expensive overall, fetching more than $24-million at Sotheby's in 2014.

Before giving her husband the watch, Woodward had the words "Drive Carefully Me" engraved on the back, in a nod to her anxiety over his fast driving three years after he was injured in a 1965 motorcycle accident.

It was on the set of "Winning," when Newman played an IndyCar driver, that the actor developed a life-long love of auto racing.

He used the watch, known as the Paul Newman Daytona, to time races and bet with friends that his watch was more accurate than theirs, Phillips said.

In 1984 it seemingly disappeared from Newman's wrist when his wife bought him a new watch, a black, non-exotic dial Cosmograph Daytona.

But that summer he gave the watch to his daughter Nell's then boyfriend, James Cox. The couple dated for nearly a decade after first meeting in college.